Abstract
The present article aims to analyze how does the nineteenth century historical-philosophical context has influenced Nietzsche´s grasp of asceticism. For this purpose, it was necessary to take distance from Nietzsche´s work to carry out a philological research on philosophical texts that dealt with the subject in the aforementioned century. This same research brought out the assumption that the term “asceticism” - in spite of having doctrinal, conceptual and etymological roots in Ancient and Medieval Ages - come up in European philosophy just in the nineteenth century. Throughout the argumentation it also has become evident how the interpretation and utilitarist usage of the notion of asceticism was essential to the elaboration of nietzschean criticism of ascetic ideal and practices.
Keywordw
asceticism; nineteenth century; utilitarianism; Schopenhauer; Bentham